According to reports in the Salt Lake Tribune, The State of Utah awarded a $2.66 million grant to underwrite the cost of erecting a massive tent in Salt Lake City in the hopes of keeping the Outdoor Retailer show in the city until 2016.
Michael Sullivan of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) seemed confident that the grant would keep the show in the Salt Palace, but show director Kenji Haroutunian would only say that Nielsen planned to make an announcement regarding the show’s future at the ons-snow demo on Jan. 22, the day before the expo opens.
Outdoor Retailer’s current contract calls for it to keep the show at the Salt Palace Convention Center through 2014.
The GOED awarded the grant Thursday to Visit Salt Lake, formerly known as the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau. The agency will use the money to erect a 150,000-square-foot tent on vacant land just north of the Salt Palace Convention Center to add space for the Outdoor Retailer’s summer show. Outdoor Retailer had to erect tents for the summer 2011 and 2012 editions of the show to accomodate vendors who could not fit in the Salt Palace Convention Center.
